See Bono and Michael Stipe in Trailer for Hansa Studios Documentary

The German studio used by David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, U2 and others is the subject of a documentary film to be broadcast on Jan. 10 – the second anniversary of Bowie’s death. U.K. network Sky Arts have released a trailer for Hansa Studios: By The Wall 1976-90, which you can view above and features Bono and R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe.

Described as located on “the outskirts of Western civilization,” Hansa overlooked the Berlin Wall until the barrier was dismantled at the end of the Cold War in the early ‘90s. The heady mix of socio-political clashes fueled a wide range of cutting-edge musicians over the years.

“Hansa Studios: By the Wall 1976-90 is a brand new, feature-length film by Mike Christie documenting the historical, cultural and artistic significance of Hansa Studios – an iconic music recording studio complex situated in Berlin,” Sky Arts said in a statement. “The iconic Hansa Studio is situated in Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz – virtually alone in a wasteland in West Berlin during the 1970s and ‘80s, mere metres from where the Berlin Wall once stood and at the very edge of the Western world.

“Within its walls, David Bowie created his timeless 1977 albums Low and Heroes – his albums made in collaboration with Brian Eno. It was during this Hansa period that the phrase was coined: ‘There’s Old Wave. There’s New Wave. And there’s David Bowie…’. U2 recorded Achtung Baby at Hansa, and Iggy Pop’s celebrated tracks 'Lust for Life' and ‘The Passenger’ were also recorded there, as were career defining albums by Depeche Mode, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Siouxsie and the Banshees, R.E.M., Supergrass and many more.

“With unprecedented access to artists, engineers and producers, as well as the studios and its evocative archive, this film tells the story of how the studio – previously famous for being a domestic German pop hit factory – came to define a sound for an entire generation.”